Communications sent between Germany’s two leading email providers will now be encrypted to provide better security against potential NSA surveillance. Experts say the move will do little to thwart well-equipped snoopers.

The "E-mail made in Germany" project has been set up in the wake
of US surveillance revelations made by NSA whistleblower Edward
Snowden. National Security Agency documents show that the agency
intercepts 500 million phone calls, texts, and emails in Germany
each month.

"Germans are deeply unsettled by the latest reports on the
potential interception of communication data," said Rene
Obermann, head of Deutsche Telekom, the country’s largest email
provider. “Now, they can bank on the fact that their personal
data online is as secure as it possibly can be.”

Deutsche Telekom and United Internet, which operate about
two-thirds of Germany’s primary email accounts, said that from
now on they will use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) – a modern,
industry-standard form of encryption that scrambles signals as
they are sent through cables, which is the point at which the NSA
often intercepts communication. The companies will also employ
exclusively German servers and internal cables when sending
messages between each other.

Obermann told the media that no access to users’ email will now
be possible without a warrant. However, experts claim the impact
of the measure is likely to be mostly psychological and symbolic.

"This initiative helps to tackle the-day-to-day sniffing
around on the communication lines but it still doesn't prevent
governments from getting information," Stefan Frei, a
research director at information security company NSS Labs, told
Reuters.

As Snowden’s files revealed, the NSA specifically focuses on
foreign servers - often with backing from the country that hosts
them - when intercepting communication. The agency is also able
to crack the SSL code, with and without help from the email
operator. However, it is much harder to do so without an
operator-issued “key."

It is notable that Google and other leading companies implicated
as willing participants in the PRISM surveillance program also
offer SSL encoding with their email service.

"Of course the NSA could still break in if they wanted to, but
the mass encryption of emails would make it harder and more
expensive for them to do so," said Sandro Gaycken, a
professor of cyber security at Berlin's Free University.